USPTO Patents Application 09624718

United States Patent and Trademark Office

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office

Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450

Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov

APPLICATION NO.

FILING DATE

FIRST NAMED INVENTOR

ATTORNEY DOCKET NO.

CONFIRMATION NO.

09/624,718

07/25/2000

Shinichi Yoshimura

112857-062

6804

29175 7590 03/24/2004

BELL, BOYD & LLOYD, LLC
P. O. BOX 1135
CHICAGO, IL 60690-1135

EXAMINER

KAO, CHIH CHENG G

ART UNIT

PAPER NUMBER

2882

DATE MAILED: 03/24/2004

Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.

PTO 90C (Rev 10/03)

Office Action Summary

Application No.

09/624,718

Examiner

Chih-Cheng Glen Kao

i

Applicant(s)

YOSHIMURA, SHINICHI

Art Unit

2882

The MAILING DATE of this communication appears on the cover sheet with the correspondence address -
Period for Reply

A SHORTENED STATUTORY PERIOD FOR REPLY IS SET TO EXPIRE 3 MONTH(S) FROM
THE MAILING DATE OF THIS COMMUNICATION.

- Extensions of time may be available under the provisions of 37 CFR 1 .136(a). In no event, however, may a reply be timely filed
after SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- If the period for reply specified above is less than thirty (30) days, a reply within the statutory minimum of thirty (30) days will be considered timely.

- If NO period for reply is specified above, the maximum statutory period will apply and will expire SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- Failure to reply within the set or extended period for reply will, by statute, cause the application to become ABANDONED (35 U.S.C. § 1 33).
Any reply received by the Office later than three months after the mailing date of this communication, even if timely filed, may reduce any
earned patent term adjustment. See 37 CFR 1 .704(b).

Status

1 )^ Responsive to communication(s) filed on 20 February 2004 .
2a)D This action is FINAL. 2b)£3 This action is non-final.

3) D Since this application is in condition for allowance except for formal matters, prosecution as to the merits is

closed in accordance with the practice under Ex parte Quayle, 1935 CD. 1 1 , 453 O.G. 213.

Disposition of Claims

4) £3 Claim(s) 1-15 is/are pending in the application.

4a) Of the above claim(s) is/are withdrawn from consideration.

5) D Claim(s) is/are allowed.

6) ^ Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected.

7) Q Claim(s) is/are objected to.

8) D Claim(s) are subject to restriction and/or election requirement.

Application Papers

9) D The specification is objected to by the Examiner.

10)[3 The drawing(s) filed on 20 February 2004 is/are: a)^ accepted or b)D objected to by the Examiner.

Applicant may not request that any objection to the drawing(s) be held in abeyance. See 37 CFR 1 .85(a).

Replacement drawing sheet(s) including the correction is required if the drawing(s) is objected to. See 37 CFR 1.121(d).
1 1 )□ The oath or declaration is objected to by the Examiner. Note the attached Office Action or form PTO-152.

Priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119

12)^ Acknowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) or (f).
a)|EI All b)D Some * c)D None of:

1 Certified copies of the priority documents have been received.

2.Q Certified copies of the priority documents have been received in Application No. .

3.Q Copies of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received in this National Stage
application from the International Bureau (PCT Rule 17.2(a)).
See the attached detailed Office action for a list of the certified copies not received.

Attachment(s)

1) [3 Notice of References Cited (PTO-892)

2) O Notice of Draftsperson's Patent Drawing Review (PTO-948)

3) D Information Disclosure Statement(s) (PTO-1449 or PTO/SB/08)

Paper No(s)/Mail Date .

4) □ Interview Summary (PTO-413)

Paper No(s)/Mail Date. .

5) □ Notice of Informal Patent Application (PTO-152)

6) □ Other: .

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
PTOL-326 (Rev. 1-04)

Office Action Summary

Part of Paper No./Mail Date 200403

Application/Control Number: 09/624,7 1 8 Page 2

Art Unit: 2882

DETAILED ACTION

Drawings

1 . The corrected drawings were received on 2/20/04. These drawings are acceptable.

Claim Objections

2. Claims 5 and 6 are objected to because of the following informalities, which appear to be
minor draft errors creating lack of antecedent basis or grammatical problems. In the following
format (location of objection; suggestion for correction), the following suggestions may obviate
the objections: (claim 5, lines 2-3, "the rows or the columns"; inserting - -rows and columns,
forming- - before "a matrix" in claim 1, line 2), (claim 6, line 13, "the processing"; deleting
"the"), (claim 6, line 14, "than clear signal"; inserting - -the- - before "clear"), and (claim 6, line
14, "or transfer signal"; inserting - -the- - before "transfer").

For purposes of examination, the claims have been treated as such. Appropriate
correction is required.

Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the
basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:

A person shall be entitled to a patent unless -

(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on
sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent in the United States.

Application/Control Number: 09/624,7 1 8 Page 3

Art Unit: 2882

3. Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(b) as being anticipated by Miyawaki et al.
(US Patent 5726439).

4. Regarding claims 1 and 6, Miyawaki et al. discloses an apparatus and method comprising
light reception means and a step (col. 2, lines 48-53), operating units and a step for operating a
signal by the light reception means being based on at least one of a clear signal and a transfer
signal (Fig. 9A, at least #304-306), a plurality of outputting units for a step, each receiving a
result of an operation of a corresponding one of the operating units and outputting the result (Fig.
9B, #341-343), and timing adjustment means and a step for adjusting a timing at which the result
of the operation is output from the outputting units, said timing adjustment means using a control
signal other than the clear or transfer signal (Fig. 9B, #349).

5. Regarding claims 2 and 7, Miyawaki et al. further discloses storage means and a step for
storing a plurality of signals at different timings (Fig. 9 A, transistors inside #304).

6. Regarding claims 3 and 8, Miyawaki et al. further discloses operating units and a step for
executing a comparison operation (Fig. 9A, comparator).

7. Regarding claims 4 and 9, Miyawaki et al. further discloses an arithmetic operation for
determining a maximum or minimum value (col. 10, lines 28-30).

Application/Control Number: 09/624,718 Page 4

Art Unit: 2882

8. Regarding claims 5 and 10, Miyawaki et al further discloses outputting units outputting
results of an arithmetic operation (Fig. 9 A, #311) for each of the rows or columns by timing
adjustment means (Fig. 9B, #349).

9. Regarding claims 1 1 and 12, Miyawaki et al. discloses an apparatus and method
comprising light reception means and a step (col. 2, lines 48-53), operating units and a step for
operating a signal by the light reception means being based on at least one of a clear signal and a
transfer signal (Fig. 9A, at least #304-306), wherein operation includes a plurality of modes
selected based on a control signal other than the clear and transfer signal (Fig. 9 A, #310), and
wherein the plurality of modes are represented by different expressions from each other (col. 9,
lines 46-52).

10. Regarding claim 13, Miyawaki et al. further discloses operating units performing an
arithmetic operation (Fig. 9A, #31 1).

11. Regarding claims 14 and 15, Miyawaki et al. further discloses operating units storing
(Fig. 9A, transistors in #304-306) and operating (Fig. 9A, comparator) a plurality of
photoelectrical^ converted signals (col. 2, lines 48-53) at predetermined timing intervals (Fig. 2
and 5) in the order in which signals are received.

Response to Arguments

12. Applicant's arguments, see the last paragraph on page 7, filed 2/20/04, with respect to the
rejection(s)of claim(s) 1 and 6 under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) have been fully considered and are

Application/Control Number: 09/624,7 1 8 Page 5

Art Unit: 2882

persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration,
a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Miyawaki et al. as recited above, thus
withdrawing finality of the last Office action.

Conclusion

Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the
examiner should be directed to Chih-Cheng Glen Kao whose telephone number is (571) 272-
2492. The examiner can normally be reached on M - F (9 am to 5 pm).

If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's
supervisor, Ed Glick can be reached on (571) 272-2490. The fax phone number for the
organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 703-872-9306.

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